Former President Goodluck Jonathan at the weekend said the late High Chief Olu Benson, Lulu-Briggs was as a sophisticated personality, who supported the Nigerian political process, saying he (Lulu Briggs) played a key role in his rise in national politics.
Jonathan stated this during the final burial of the philanthropist and billionaire oil magnate in his Abonnema country home in Rivers State amid pomp and pageantry.
The deceased, who was founder and Chairman of Moni Pulo Limited, an oil and gas company who died at 88 on December 27, 2018 in Ghana, was a man of many parts, who had a humble beginning but rose to become one of African’s foremost nationalist who impacted on the development of the country.
The Forbes Magazine named him among Africa’s 40 richest men in 2012 with a net worth of $500 million. Former President Goodluck Jonathan, Rivers State Governor, Nyesom Wike, First Lady, Aisha Buhari, who was represented by wife of Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Alayingi Timipre Sylver, among several others, attended the burial ceremony in Abonnema.
Jonathan said: “I find it difficult to express myself when talking about Chief Lulu-Briggs. I knew him very well from 2007 when I got involved in national politics. When the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) nominated me as running mate to the late President Umaru Musa Yar’dua, I was looking for top politicians and respected leaders in the Niger Delta region to support the political process.”
Son of the deceased, Dumo Lulu Briggs, said: “I will like to say that we are a family. We want to be a family with everybody, with our stepmother and all. There is nothing that has happened that we shall allow to divide us.”
Also speaking, Aisha Buhari who was represented by Mrs. Timipre Sylver, said the deceased was known for his proficiency in the country’s oil and gas sector.
She expressed confidence that the son of the late philanthropist and candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance in the 2019 governorship election in Rivers State, Dumo Lulu-Briggs was capable of flying the flag of his late father high.
Dumo Lulu Briggs, described his late father as a great man, who soared from humble background after loosing his father two years after birth, noting that his late father’s life would remain an inspiration, not only to the Lulu-Briggs family, but to the country at large.
“My father had a very humble beginning, but then he was lucky when he became a clerk with the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA).
“He lost his only brother within eleven days of his father’s death and he was only able to manage four years of formal education.”
So I want to encourage all that it doesn’t matter what your situation is, I pray that the life of our father would be an inspiration to all of us,” he said.
